YEAR OF MISSION FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Jesus finds himself rejected in this Sunday’s Gospel… not by strangers but by those close to him and by those who know him. Maybe it’s because Jesus is too familiar to them; maybe he’s too ordinary for them and they were expecting something different. If the mission of Jesus is our mission too, if we look out onto our world with the eyes and mind of the Lord, then surely rejection is something we will face. How can God work through you? Why would God choose you? Because God does and he chooses the ordinary and the familiar to speak to us and to reach out to us. Paul recognises not just his own weaknesses but he recognises the insults and the persecutions that come when preaching the Gospel. We may find ourselves dismissed by others because of the choices we make, because of the things we do, because of the way we live. Our way of thinking and loving and living may rub against the grain but we live and love as we do so that we might be faithful to the Gospel. God’s grace is at work within us. May that grace give us the strength this week to persevere in all we do for the Lord.